South Africa-Day 6 (Sunday in Cape Town)

(March 30, 2014)

South Africa-Day 6 (Cape Town)

This morning began with a great 10 mile run in one of the parks here in Capetown.  It was a beautiful park with lots of trees and wide open grassy spaces.  There were a lot of runners.  After breakfast, the team packed up and we moved from the University of Cape Town area into the downtown area.  

After we unloaded our bags at the new hotel (Holiday Inn Express) we walked to the Central Methodist Mission for worship.  This is a beautiful old downtown church with new life and energy.   It was a diverse congregation with blended music in worship (guitar and a pipe organ-sometimes playing together.  We sang old hymns and new hymns/songs.  The minister at Central is Alan Storey (son of Peter Storey).  He preached a very prophetic sermon on the story of Jesus healing the blind man in John 9:1-40.  He tied it into the what he called the sin of exclusion and talked about how we the church are good at excluding people today.  He finished by saying the sin the of Pharisees was trying to keep the wrong people out, while Jesus always erred on the side of mercy and he went looking for those who had been excluded by the religious faithful.  It was a powerful reflection on that story and everyone left challenged.  

The church itself is a traditional sanctuary but has some modern features:  it has a coffee shop in one entrance that is open during the week for people downtown.  It has a prayer area in the front for people to light a candle and to sit and pray quietly.  There were greeters to welcome you at the door and every person who came in received a name tag (the volunteers actually filled out the name tag for the guests, rather than having the guests do it themselves, as a way of learning their name and calling each person by name, “we are so glad you are here today, Brett”).  The congregation was very diverse in ages and races. Outside were the sounds of people at a local market, drums from a nearby drum circle and bells from the top of the church.  

After church we had lunch with Peter and Alan Storey and a lengthy conversation on how Methodist Churches in Africa and America can learn from and encourage one another.  I invited Alan to come speak at Christ Church when he is in the United States in September, we will see if it can be worked into his busy schedule.  I also learned from Peter Storey that he preached at Christ Church back in the early 1990’s…small world!   Talk about another example of a small world, yesterday at Robben Island I met a lady who lives in Lauderhill!  She is in South Africa with a few friends and will be going home the same day that we are.  

This afternoon we went up to the top of Table Mountain, the beautiful mountain that overlooks Cape Town.  It has recently been named one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  If you have never seen a picture do a Google Search, it really is amazing.  We rode a cable car up and from the top you can see all of Cape Town and the Atlantic ocean on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other.  

I finish tonight with the benediction from worship today, may be it be a challenge and a benediction for you this week:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. Amen.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. Amen.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection,starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. Amen.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

And the Blessing of God, who Creates, Redeems and Sanctifies, be upon you and all you love an pray for this day, and forever more. Amen.

God’s Peace,

Brett